Gale pushed through the door of the house. He fluttered to the living room, seeing there was a fire going and Flash in his normal armchair. Lance had claimed the entirety of the couch, and somehow, for such a small creature, had managed to stretch himself out to occupy the majority of the cushions' surface area.

"Hey," he said.

"Hey," responded Gale, his voice calm and strong in the dimly lit room, and his eyes stayed glued on the fire.

Gale sat in his chair, kicking out his rear leg to its full extent. He started rubbing his aching stump of a leg, grimacing slightly as he worked the damaged muscles to tenderness.

"I think there'll be rain tonight," he said, looking out of the overhead skylight to see the pale face of the moon obscured by clouds.

"Does it hurt? Your leg?"

"Yeah. All the time, but its worse in bad weather."

Gale kept massaging the stump.

"What about you?"

"It's the same. Every time I try to move, my shoulder burns, but I can't feel my wing unless I try to move it. My eye doesn't hurt as bad as it used to, but I miss being able to see."

Lance groaned suddenly, stretching to his full extent on the soft couch. The fire crackled as the pine logs within the pit popped in the heat.

"Do they keep asking about you?" inquired Gale.

"Yeah," Flash said after a long pause.

"Me too."

Silence ensued, the fire adding its presence through an eerie glow in the otherwise dark room.

"Why do they do it?"

Gale looked to his brother after the black pegasus paused.

"Why do they expect us to come back and just continue living? Why do they think we can talk about what happened over there? Do they think we're just like them?"

"I think they just want to help," said Gale, the fire dancing in his icy blue eyes, and his blonde mane finding a different hue in the orange glow, "They've never done anything like we have. They don't understand, and in their experience, their problems can be solved as simply as that. They can heal wounds with words and love; they've never been truly wounded though."

They two stared into the fire a long while, and its flames became a setting. In the dancing, orange leaps of the fire, faint hints of days and memories of whoever was unfortunate enough to see into the flame flashed by, until Gale couldn't take it any longer.

"Good night," the grey pegasus said suddenly, and rose, hobbling to his room, and shut the door behind him softly.

"Celtic actual, this is Archer team Alpha. You've got tangos closing on your six, get out of there."

"Roger Archer! Hurry up Flash, we're leaving!"

The sounds came through the void, carelessly ruining the otherwise peaceful atmosphere of nothingness.

"All Celtic units, concentrate your fire on the northern hillside!"

The sounds of muffled thunder came from somewhere, invisible in the distance of the abyss, and sharp whip cracks came from all around. Whistles blew somewhere above, and a deep rumbling came from all around.

"On my mark, make for the gun nest!"

A new sound, panting, came through the darkness, and it ended with something heavy landing in moisture, more whip cracks all around. Whizzing, buzzing noises came to exist, and the sounds of the something thumping into soft earth resounded in the abyss.

"Alright, on my count, pop up, empty your mag, and go for the trench!"

"Gale," came a new voice, high pitched and trembling.

"We'll be fine Miles!"rumbled a baritone.

"On three. One... Two.......... Three!"

More thunder, closer this time, more snaps, more buzzing, more whistling overhead, and the panting continued.

Then, every sound stopped; all except for a single whistle far above, growing louder and louder and louder.

Suddenly, thunder boomed extremely close, and the darkness flashed to white.

Silence.

Nothing but silence.

Pure...unadulterated...terrible silence.

"Gale?" came the voice, barely disturbing the quiet.

More silence, somehow quieter than before.

It lasted, holding as long as it could. Not even ears rung.

It was totally, utterly...horribly silent.

Then, something screamed.

"AAAAHHHHH!"

Gale shot up, his head snapping back and forth to anything and everything in the room. Something moved, and he shot out from under the sheets to defend himself.

"Gale!" came an imposing voice from outside, and the door flew inwards.

"AAHH!" he screamed again, instinctively getting to his feet as somepony burst into the room.

Gale leveled his forelimbs at the opponent, one against his cheek, the other held out before his face, aiming an invisible weapon at the doorway. His breath came quickly, and he screamed a third time.

The intruder stopped, surrendering, and held his forelimbs above his head. He stepped forward, and Gale tracked him as he entered the moonlight, identifying the hostile.

Flash.

He looked almost afraid. Gale looked at his brother, his one lively eye gripping not to anger, but to concern.

Gale drew in a breath suddenly, and he lowered his forelimbs as he fell onto his flanks. He looked around frantically; he was in his room;he was home; he was safe.

Then, he felt the moisture on his cheeks.

He broke down as he remembered the nightmare; the worst kind of nightmare, a memory.

He didn't just cry; he sobbed. He heaved as he buried his head in his hooves, weeping like a child, and the otherwise quiet night was interrupted by his whimpering.

He felt alone, cold, and above all, afraid; until he felt his brother at his side.

The gruff, normally threatening Flash wrapped his big brother in a tender embrace, and held him to his breast.

Gale wrapped his forelimbs around him, sobbing into his dark hide, not letting him move. He wept without holding anything back, hugging his only family and closest friend as they sat on the bed.

Gale thought he was the only one crying, until he felt a drop on the back of his head.

There, on the bed in the dark, the only light coming from the soft, pale rays of the moon, they cried together, wishing for the nightmares and demons of the past to leave them; but to no avail.

"How was work?"

"Long."

The brothers sat on a bench in the park, the late afternoon sun beating down on their tired hides. The darker of the two held a crimson rose in his hooves, smiling and smelling it periodically.

"The designer say yes?"

"Rarity," he said, correcting his brother, "She did. I found this at the farm this morning. It was on the gate, right where I could see it."

"Love notes always work," sighed Gale, his face devoid of an expression as he watched others go about their business in the park.

Neither of them spoke for a while. They only sat together, trying to enjoy each other's company as well as the day.

Gale looked across the green field and saw a young couple sitting on a picnic blanket, staring dreamily into each other's eyes.

He looked away from them, only to find his eyes landing on a dark pegasus he recognized from work. The stallion, Thunderlane, who he had come to know slightly, was darting back and forth on the ground, playing catch with a flightless foal.

The smaller of the two was young, very young, and was chasing a rubber ball to and fro as they played together. From across the park, Gale heard a distant, "Go long," and the foal took off as fast as he could go towards the bench.

The ball flew into the air, and the foal jumped and caught it, his wings buzzing uselessly. Before the grey foal could raise himself up from the ground, Thunderlane was on him, having darted from the other side of the park to pick him up himself.

"Nice catch!" he said, still a small way off from the bench, and hugged the foal.

The scene seemed too familiar.

Gale averted his eyes, and choked back tears, trying to postpone them until later, when he wasn't in public. Then, he would remember, and let them flow freely.

Suddenly, a voice sounded from his side.

"Excuse me, sir," it squeaked, and Gale jumped.

He and Flash looked to the side of the bench, where a trio of fillies stood, staring up at them with huge, twinkling eyes.

"Whoa! Flash? I didn't think I'd see you here!"

Flash recognized the filly farthest right of the group to be his employer's sister.

"Hey Applebloom," he said flatly.

"Girls, this is that guy I was tellin' y'all about earlier; the one that's workin' on the farm now."

Applebloom's excitement faded when she realized she didn't know the other stallion on the bench, and her smile diminished as the icy eyes of Flash's brother gazed at her.

"Oh," started the white filly in the center of the group, her eyes darting up from Clyde's absent appendage to his face, "And you're the one my sister's designing that robot leg for!"

"Whoa! You mean like a cyborg?!" added the third, an orange filly with a distinctive rasp to her voice.

"Yeah...well, sort of."

"Y'all, we're gettin' sidetracked!" yelled Applebloom, calling her rambling companions back to the present, "Mr. Flash, these are my friends Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo."

"Charmed," said Flash, trying his best to at least entertain his newest company.

The three fillies looked expectantly to the other stallion on the bench, prompting him to primitively thump his chest and say, "Gale Force."

"So," began Flash, trying to speak for his normally verbose brother, "What did you come over here for. Sure wasn't just to say hi."

"We were just wondering," began Sweetie Belle a bit nervously, "what does your cutie mark mean?"

She extended a forelimb to Gale, who was still sitting, devoid of expression.

"We've just never seen another one like it before," added Scootaloo.

Gale looked at his flank, lifting his wing slightly to see it fully. On his hide was what could only be described as a trio of leaves, each composed of interweaving lines.

"I don't know."

"What?" the three fillies shouted in unison.

"I never figured out what it meant."

The trio stared at him in what seemed like shock, their mouths agape and their backs slouched.

"Well," said the orange filly, "I don't know which would be worse. Having a cutie mark, but not knowing what it's for, or not having one at all."

As she finished, Applebloom elbowed her in the ribs, prompting a quiet, "Ow," from her friend.

"Why would ya say that?"

"No," came Gale's haggard voice from the bench, "She's right."

A momentary silence followed, until it was broken by Sweetie Belle.

"Well, what about your cutie mark?" she asked, nodding to Flash.

The dark pegasus stepped away from the bench, turning to show off the rank insignia on his flank.

"That's pretty cool!" exclaimed Scootaloo, "How'd you get it?"

"I discovered how much I loved soldiers," he explained, "It showed up one day when we were playing war when we were colts. That was the day I made up my mind to join the marines."

"Maybe we could try that!" yelled Scootaloo, excited at the possibility of finding their cutie marks.

"No," started Gale, looking at them sternly, but sadness was in his eyes, "Don't do that."

"Why not," started Sweetie Belle, a bit saddened.

"Yeah Gale. Why not?" asked Flash angrily, leaning into his brother, waiting on an impending explanation as to why he was down talking joining the military.

"You three would be doing it for the wrong reasons," Gale explained, "You're not joining up because you have something to fight for. You'd just do it to see what happens. Besides, you're not old enough. Later, if you feel like you have the right head for the job, by all means, sign up; It'd be one of the greatest things you could do with your lives. But until that day comes, keep the military, especially the Corps, out of your heads."

Flash looked at his brother, a bewildered look on his face, as well on the faces of the fillies. Gale still looked serious and sad, and he looked into the deep brown eye of his brother for a while.

"He said he got his cutie mark playing war?" asked Scootaloo loud enough for the two brothers trying to figure each other out to hear.

"Yeah," came the response from the two other fillies, but the brothers didn't turn to look at them.

"Well, let's get some pinecones and sticks, and see what kind of soldiers we'd make!"

"Yeah!"

And with that, they were off, bounding over the grassy field to, no doubt, terrorize each other with harmless, mimics of weapons, re-enacting the few war scenes from movies they may have seen.

After a long silence of staring at each other, trying to read each other without speaking, Flash said, "What's gotten into you?"

"You've got your demons, I've got mine."

"What are you talking about Gale?"

"Oh, don't act like you don't know," he said, raising his voice.

"Yeah, I know I snap sometimes. I can't control it; I was never able to. I just hear something, or I get surprised, and I'm back in Germaneigh, but you? You were always able to bury everything; just keep it inside. You've kept me in check so far. What happened?"

"What I buried is coming to the surface."

"Well then what was that all about?"

"I'm just sick of seeing young lives destroyed."

"They're fillies looking for their talents; it's harmless. What, did you think they were going to head down to the recruitment office?"

"I don't know Flash. It's just, I'm getting tired. I'm tired of the memories, the nightmares. I want to move on, but I just can't."

"You're the one that told me to honor Miles with a life he would want to live," said Flash, standing up imposingly, "You told me!"

"Check your tone Gunny!" yelled Gale, hovering off the ground, the icy cool in his eyes being melted by the fire of his fighting spirit.

Flames danced in both brothers' eyes, staring daggers at each other, until they both calmed down, realizing what they were doing.

They stood facing each other, eye to eye, for a long while, each knowing, but not quite understanding, what the other was dealing with internally.

Gale looked away for a second, seeing a few pairs of staring eyes directed at them from across the park.

"Let's just go home."

The pair approached the darkened windowed flat they had grown fond of in the few days they had occupied it, neither saying a word.

Gale walked up to the porch, produced a key, and dropped the deadbolt's tumblers, unsealing the door. Flash swung the door on its smooth hinges, and as they walked in, Gale behind his brother, Flash flicked on the light switch.

As soon as the light replaced the darkness, a sudden shout and an explosion of paper confetti came from all around them.

"Surprise!"

Gale suppressed his own shock, and looked at Flash; his eyes were wide, and their intensity had returned.

He'd snapped.

A sudden pink flash appeared before them, jumping up into Flash's face with an excited rush.

"SURPRISE!" yelled the mare, and Flash drew a hoof back.

Gale saw it coming, and threw himself in front of his brother, knocking the pink mare off balance and to the side.

"Stop!" he tried to yell, but his brother was too far gone.

Flash struck to where the mare was a second before, connecting a bone splitting blow on his brother's chin.

Gale heard his own teeth crack together, and felt himself falling backwards as everything faded to blackness.

"I think he's waking up."

Gale heard a familiar feminine voice somewhere above him.

"Come on," he heard a different voice say, and felt a few gentle taps against the side of his cheek.

He opened his eyes slowly, the darkness being replaced by bright light. He squinted up as he was temporarily blinded, and when his vision returned, he recognized he was in his room.

"Hey there sugar cube," said a mare from the side of the room, and he looked around to see seven faces staring at him. One was his brother's, the others belonged to mares, all but one of them familiar.

"See," started Rainbow Dash, fluttering over him, still slapping his cheek again to fully bring him out of the haze of being knocked unconscious, "Barely even a mark, and no teeth missing either."

"Well, that's a good thing," added Rarity.

Gale rose under his own power, and as he became fully aware, he heard faint sounds of laughter and the clinking of glasses outside.

"A party?"

Suddenly, a noisemaker sounded in his ear, and he turned to the source to see a pink mare grinning up at him.

"I'm Pinkie Pie," she said excitedly.

Gale only rubbed his deafened ear while looking at her confusedly, trying to ascertain why she was here; he definitely didn't know her, but she acted as if she had known him for years.

"Umm, hi," was all he managed to say, but the mare acted like he had just made her night by speaking.

"So," started Gale, peeking through his bedroom door to see a good portion of the town's inhabitants packed into his home, "What's going on?"

Twilight came over from the corner to explain.

"Pinkie organized this surprise party to welcome you to Ponyville. That's why everypony is here. But when you came in..."

Rainbow Dash continued where Twilight left off.

"Flash knocked you out cold."

"It was scary," whispered Fluttershy from the side of the room, Lance laying lazily across her lap.

"What I wanna know is why you hit him Flash," inquired Applejack.

The two brothers looked at each other, neither of them harboring anything from the other, but they didn't know how to explain what they had come to know to the others.

"Yeah," started Pinkie Pie, bounding over to Flash's side, and staring up into his one functioning eye, asked, "It looked like you were trying to hit me."

"Look," started Gale, "Flash, I think we've got some explaining to do."

The dark Pegasus turned to face all in the room.

"Who's heard of PTSD?"

"Post traumatic stress disorder? Yes, I've read about it," explained Twilight.

"But why do you have it?" asked Pinkie Pie, innocently ignorant to the stallions' scarred bodies and dog tags.

Gale looked to Flash, who nodded affirmation.

"I can't tell you, but I can show you."